


aftermath

by maddy_does (favefangirl)



Series: carry on countdown 2020 [18]
Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, F/F, F/M, POV Fiona, Post-Book 1: Carry On, Requited Love, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:14:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28032990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/favefangirl/pseuds/maddy_does
Summary: Fiona struggles with grief after Ebb's death.
Relationships: Ebeneza "Ebb" Petty/Fiona Pitch, Nicodemus Petty/Fiona Pitch
Series: carry on countdown 2020 [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2026733
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5
Collections: Carry On Countdown 2020





	aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> Carry On Countdown Day 18, DEC 12: Side Ship

She's lost them both. She stares down into cold, black coffee, and realises that that's it - they're both gone. She stares into the mug until she feels like she's about to go crazy, then gets up, her chair scraping loudly on the kitchen floor. She rips off her dressing gown, tugs on her docs and a leather jacket, lights a cigarette, then heads out. She just can't be in the flat right now.

Part of her knows she should be relieved. Finally there's justice for Natasha and Baz, finally the Mage is gone, it's what she's been working towards for what feels like half her life now. What's more, Baz is safe and sound, a miracle in and of itself. She doesn't want to dwell too much on the fact that he's gone and shacked up with the Mage's protégé, but in all honesty, she's not that surprised. Baz has always been weird about Simon Snow. The fact that they've both made it and now have a shot at happiness should have her rejoicing. 

But she's not sure it's worth the cost.

She doesn't even know where she's going, just wandering aimlessly. When her cigarette burns down, she lights another just to have something to do with her hands. They keep shaking when she's still for too long. She turns up and down alleyways with no purpose or direction. She could be walking for hours, minutes or days, but time hasn't felt real in all too long, so she couldn't tell you to save her life which it was.

She swears when she runs out of cigarettes, turning to see if she recognises her surroundings, and if she can find a corner shop to buy some more. She freezes when the butt of a cigarette appears by her mouth, and when she turns to see whose offering it to her, she swears her heart stops. With a shaking hand, she takes the offered cigarette between her thumb and forefinger, and brings it to her mouth. A lighter appears at the end of it, so she tilts her head forward slightly to light it, never taking her eyes off the man in front of her. Her expression is no doubt comical, wide eyes, eyebrows halfway up her forehead.

"Fiona," Nicodemus says in greeting, putting the cigarettes and the lighter away (she notes how careful he is with the latter, and it's a grim reminder of what he is now).

Fiona hasn't seen Nico in decades. While she'd been alive, Natasha had been good about making sure they never stumbled across one another, and after she died, Fiona was only interested in revenge, and for the most part that didn't involve him. She stares at him, and he looks just like his younger self, which would be enough to unsettle her on its own, but he also looks so much like his sister, and that makes her feel sick.

"What are we doing here at this time of night?" Nico asks, tilting his head.

Fiona looks up and sees for the first time that it's gotten dark around her. She hadn't even registered it, far too fixated on trying not to think of anything at all. It's December, though, so it's probably only around five or six in the evening. Three hours, she realises, she's been walking around for three hours. She turns her gaze back to Nico and wonders for how long has he been following her.

"I needed to clear my head," she answers, honestly. He tilts his head to the side, and the side of his mouth quirks upwards. "It's been a mad one, this year."

He grins at her, and when he does, the gaps in his teeth show. It takes everything inside of her not to flinch at the sight. It's yet another reminder of what he is, and that makes her stomach churn. What he did to himself, how desperate he was for all that power. It's a pity, he could've been the greatest Mage for a generation. He and Ebb could've taken on the world and his wife and come out victorious, turned the whole World of Mages on its axis just because they could. It's ended in tragedy for the both of them.

"You're telling me." He sounds almost jovial, which has Fiona immediately on edge.

Her cigarette has burned down to the butt so she tosses it onto the floor, and steps on it with the toe of her boot. She doesn't miss the way that Nico flinches as she does. Baz is never this jumpy around flame. If anything, he seems to rejoice in it. Pitch's have always been fire wielders, Natasha perhaps more so than anyone else. It must burn through Baz's blood as much as whatever toxins the bite gave him. Nico chose this, though. He sought it out on purpose. She surprises herself when she finds that she has absolutely no sympathy for him. 

They stare at each other in silence for what feels like a long time before Fiona finally finds the courage to speak. "How did you find me?" 

He huffs a laugh and shakes his head. When he looks back at her, there's something dangerous in his eyes. "What makes you think I ever lost you?"

Fiona swallows, hard. She's reminded of how possessive Nico could be. The only person he ever shared anything with was Ebb, and even then there were strict lines that she wasn't allowed to cross. Borrowing his wand was one thing, even a cigarette here an there, but everything else was strictly off limits. Once upon a time when she was young and stupid, Fiona used to wear his hickeys as a symbol of pride. She hasn't thought of herself as his for a very long time.

"What do you want?" She tries.

He looks away, and she's immensely grateful. He's always been this side of too intense, looking at him feels like burning from the inside out. She used to think it was his magic, and then maybe her feelings for him, now she wonders if it's not a sign of darkness deep within him. It was never like this with Ebb. She was mischievous, yes, brash and overconfident for sure, but there was always a part of her that was just inherently good. She was always better than the rest of them, being with Fiona and Nico was her misfortune.

"It's just us left now," he says sombrely, his voice taking on a strange edge. "We're on our own. We have to look out for one another."

Fiona takes an instinctive step backwards. Her life's a mess, there's no denying it, and it always has been to a degree. Still, she's not quite in a desperate enough position to go looking to Nico for help. She's reminded of what he'd said to her and Ebb in the days before he joined the Vampires, al the ways he'd tried to make them come with him, all the promises of them being a family.

"We've been on our own for years," Fiona counters, and she's glad to find that her voice comes off more confident than she feels. He tilts his head at her, and his eyes seem to bore right down into her soul. "Ebb died alone," she adds, hoping it'll cut him just as much as it's killing her.

If she had to choose just one mistake in her life that she'll regret forever, it's Ebb. At Watford things had never been simple. She'd loved Nico, and loving Nico meant loving Ebb as well. There was no question about it - they were a package deal in every sense. She was the most powerful of them all, though Nico was for sure a close second. She got on Fiona's nerves a lot of the time. She was emotional, and good even when she wasn't, and she was _always_ around. It took all the king's horses and all the king's men to get Nico on his own most days.

 _"She Fancies you,"_ Nico used to tease, an arm around Fiona's shoulder, but looking at Ebb with a nasty glint in his eye.

" _Not everyone wants what you have, Nic,"_ Ebb would counter, but she'd be blushing, and that would give it all away.

At the time, Fiona just saw her as Nico's annoying twin sister. She could be fun, but only when she was acting more like him than herself. From the outside, people thought they were interchangeable, but that was wrong. Ebb was a softer version of him, and Fiona was a rebel without a cause, undeniably attracted to all his sharp edges, more than a little desperate to cut herself ragged on each and every one. 

Looking back though, Fiona questions things sometimes. Ebb was beautiful, and she'd always thought she felt like that because Nico was beautiful, but now she's not sure. When she thinks of all those times the three of them would sit on the great lawn together, sprawled on top of one another, teasing and laughing and being young, she struggles to distinguish between the way she felt about Nico and the way she felt about Ebb. It blurs together until she can't help but wonder if she would've been added to that list of things Nico didn't mind sharing with his sister.

It makes her feel all the more sick now that Ebb is gone. She could've stayed with her, after Nico left. Natasha wanted her to, all but forced her to, actually. Fiona doesn't know if maybe Natasha saw how much more there was there than even she realised, but she wouldn't put it past her sister. Or maybe she was just trying to keep them both out of trouble - it's why Ebb ended up at Watford. It's tragic, and beautiful, that Ebb's favourite place in the world should be the one she never left, and the place that now she never will. But Fiona didn't stay. She ran off to Beijing and left both siblings behind when she did.

Now one of them is stood in front of her as the ghost of the two, looking every bit his sister except for the sinister curl of his lip. "She did," Nico agrees. "But it's not just your Mage to blame for that now, is it?"

Fiona swallows hard. There are trials in the coming weeks to try and figure out what happened that day. Baz, the heir and one of the Bunce children were found huddled together at the top of the tower in the middle of carnage. Fiona came to pick Baz up as soon as she heard what was happening, and had to physically drag him away from the others. She drove him home and was promptly left in the dark. She managed to call him to try and see what had happened, but he was unclear and nondescript. From what she can tell, Simon gave the Humdrum his magic and killed the Mage by accident in the process. No one seems to know what happened to Ebb.

"I don't understand." 

Nico huffs. "Still a Pitch at heart, aren't you. Though your sister would be ashamed of you." He shakes his head. "I know your brat of a nephew had something to do with this, and I won't stop until I avenge her."

Fiona is struck by how much of herself she sees in Nico. They always were scarily alike, the three of them. But he's right, she is a Pitch, through and through, and no one threatens her family. "Your sister was ashamed of you," she spits. "And she died alone because of it."

Nico rushes towards her until there's barely an inch of space between their faces. "Watch out, Fiona," he hisses, his acrid breath fanning across her cheeks. His eyes flick to her lips for a second, and she wonders if he's going to kiss her. She wonders if she'd let him. Then he begins to take large steps backwards away from her. "If you loved her too, then you won't try and stop me," he says, and then he disappears into the darkness.

Fiona pants and leans against the wall behind her. She screws her eyes shut against the tears that threaten to fall and clenches her fists. Slowly, she releases the tension in her body and stands a little taller. _No_ , she thinks, _it's because I loved your sister that I will_. She presses off from the wall and heads back in vaguely the direction she remembers walking in. If she recalls, there was rumours of a new subsection of the Coven being set up to hunt vampires. As Fiona makes her way back to her flat, she devises a plan that just might keep Baz safe, and finally put Nicodemus Petty out of his misery.

**Author's Note:**

> i couldn't choose between nico/fiona or ebb/fiona and i ended up with this ???
> 
> i refuse to accept that nico and fiona won't interact in awtwb. refuse.
> 
> anyway, if you wanna leave a comment or a kudos they're much appreciated! especially let me know if there's something you think i forgot to tag! 
> 
> i'm taking prompts! if you're interested please drop the prompt in the comments below. if you do send a prompt be prepared for me to take fifty years to fill it because _uni_ , but i promise i'll try! come say hi on tumblr: [@maddy-does](https://maddy-does.tumblr.com/)
> 
> thanks for reading, have a wonderful existence.


End file.
